the words “credit” and “worthy” should never be spoken in the same breath

January 6, 2011 by rachel

Here’s the next bit of poetic satire on the state of the world. I feel like taking requests: Any topic you would like to see addressed in rhyming verse? The dispossessed, the rich, the poor Line up to be anointed by their credit scores! The living water, giver of life Drips off your forehead, spills onto your wife, What number is this, what sacred geometry Creeps into your being, bringing instant ignominy – Is this how we define that we’re […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, humor, inspiration, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: credit scores, empowerment, humor, satire

apostrophe catastrophe – and it’s getting possessively(sic) worse!

September 1, 2008 by rachel

Forgive me for turning my attention away from the larger issues of the day, but as a writer, I can no longer avert my gaze! Pity the poor apostrophe, who seems doomed to live an existence of misuse, misalignment, misappropriation, and a torturous life of being utterly misunderstood. It’s as though it’s one minute before midnight — and an egg sac the size of the Milky Way has suddenly burst and spewed countless numbers of these once-sparse punctuation marks in […]

Categories: eclectica, humor, poetry, Rachel Snyder, writing & creativity • Tags: apostrophe, English, grammar, humor, language, poetry, punctuation, Rachel Snyder, writing

voice lessons: finding your inner writer

June 6, 2008 by rachel

No word yet from the NYC agent who requested (and received) the complete manuscript for my first work of literary fiction. In honor of my continuing patience (and said agent’s ongoing health, wealth, and happiness!), here is a piece I wrote back in 1999. Other than a few changes aimed at de-genderization, it appeared in the August issue of The Women’s Times, a monthly newspaper based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and distributed throughout areas of western Massachusetts, northern Connecticut, eastern […]

Categories: humor, inspiration, uncategorized, writing & creativity • Tags: creative expression, creativity, humor, inspiration, journal, morning pages, motivation, newspaper, novel, publishing, voice, writer, writing, writing process

i love my blog so much there ought to be a law

May 21, 2008 by rachel

If there isn’t already a commemorative holiday called I LOVE MY BLOG DAY, someone should just proclaim it and get the ball rolling. (Oh wait, I think I just did!) Yeah, I know it would get more attention if I called it I HEART MY BLOG DAY, but OMGIJUSTCANT! Sorry. My blog and I have been together for not even two and a half months yet, but we are totally, you know, committed. We spend time together every day – […]

Categories: blogkeeping, eclectica, inspiration • Tags: blog, blog romance, blogerotica, blogging, creativity, humor, inspiration, joy of blogging, love, love my blog

wanna get published? be prepared to grin and bear it!

May 15, 2008 by rachel

RE: the agony, ecstasy, and lunacy of being published If you think finding an agent and getting published is the end-all-be-all for a writer, wait until you get to marketing and promotion! This painfully funny, sad-but-true book trailer tells it like it is — and will probably do more for HEAD CASE: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain, by Dennis Cass, than even his non-review in The NY Times! If you don’t see the video […]

Categories: humor, video, writing & creativity • Tags: book, humor, marketing, promotion, publishing, video, writing

catching the big grey dog & finding query letter heaven

May 7, 2008 by rachel

Big Grey Dog: All Bark, No Bite If you’re still wondering whether (and how) I manifested my way back to Colorado from Utah, be advised: Once I let go of any preconceived notion of what my ride might look like (comfy car, scintillating conversationalist, awesome music and clever repartee), Planet Greyhound made its way onto my radar screen. So, after a hastily arranged, wild midnight ride to the bus stop (Life is good when you have friends who will leave […]

Categories: inspiration, writing & creativity • Tags: bus ride, Greyhound, humor, literary agent, manifestation, query letter, writing

word of the day: struggle

April 18, 2008 by rachel

Does it feel like you’ve been struggling forever? If you haven’t been struggling to make ends meet, you’ve been struggling to balance your family, yourself, and your job. You’ve been struggling to discover your true nature and the work you were put here to do. You’ve been struggling to live joy in a world filled with fear. Right now, feel that the struggle is over. Close your eyes and find an internal peace where struggle no longer exists. Feel your […]

Categories: humor, inspiration, video, word of the day • Tags: humor, inspiration, life, love song parody, personal growth, spanish, struggle, video, word of the day, word of wisdom

defragged, detached, and decocted: the blogger’s journey

March 31, 2008 by rachel

The past three days have been decidedly desolate. My computer, Mackenzie, obviously read with great interest my post of March 26, in which I invited you, beloved reader, to meet Rancher Ed Sly, and also proffered a not-so-subtle invitation to gather up the fragmented pieces of yourself and be whole now (blog title, see above), all the while shaking your bootie to the fractured Three Dog Night lyrics, “Integrate! Integrate! Dance to the music.” Profoundly inspired, Mackenzie immediately signed on […]

Categories: humor, writing & creativity • Tags: defragment, humor, Sylvia Plath, writing

i have met rancher ed sly, and he is me

March 26, 2008 by rachel

I recently met Rancher Ed Sly. A friend suggested I visit a particular website, and among the long list of names, there he was. The connection was immediate. It was as though I had reconnected with a part of myself. Rancher Ed oozed earth and sky and straw stuck in his socks. Thousands of acres of land were his, dovetailed with an endless sky as big as, well, an endless sky. (Outstanding word choice, Rachel!) Dang that cowboy thing! That […]

Categories: inspiration • Tags: humor, inspiration, life, personal growth

someone at barnes&noble may just be my new best friend

March 24, 2008 by rachel

My world as a writer turned upside down today. I visited one of the last remaining independent bookstores in the English-speaking world, to do what writers do in between digging out tiny slivers of chocolate from beneath the space bar on their computer keyboards and sharpening pencils just in case a young person shows up at the door and politely asks, “Excuse me, could you show me what is a pencil?” That, of course, is to visit the bookstore and […]

Categories: humor, writing & creativity • Tags: bookstores, humor, Rachel Snyder, Words of Wisdom for Women, writing

the tao of automobiles redux: how many nuns does it take to get a dodge charger out of bondage?

March 20, 2008 by rachel

Kudos to the brave souls who stepped up for their personalized automotivology readings! You can drive yourself over here to eavesdrop and also to submit your own request. The oracle remains on duty 7 days a week. It only seems fair at this point to ‘fess up to my current automotive issues. They involve the planet Saturn (twice); Senator Ron Paul; five singing, joking and jiving nuns; innumerable miracles; and a Dodge Charger. Are you with me so far? Good. […]

Categories: humor, ordinary oracles • Tags: humor, oracles, the tao of automobiles, writing